No Sitting Down on the Job at One St. Louis Firm

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Desk chairs are getting pushed aside in one St. Louis office.

“Most of the time you walk through the office, most people are standing,” says Dennis Bennett, a partner at Global Patent Group.

Not because they’re at attention around the boss.

Bennett tells KMOX it’s because they’ve found it’s more comfortable working on their feet than sitting on their duff. Bennett bought stand-up desks for staffers that wanted them, after finding it helped eliminate his chronic lower back pain.

Then he took it one step further—putting a treadmill at one at a communal desk that has a docking station for laptops. He admits it takes some getting used to, “to learn how to walk and be in a meeting, which we do a lot of. Also being able to walk and type and stuff, that takes a little more coordination.”

Bennett says he’s on his feet most of the day and tries to walk the treadmill up to two hours a day. He estimates he burned 35,000 calories last year and dropped five or six pounds.